Middle East countries are improving a lot. Egypt, Qatar and Iran have world class players. There are a lot of strong tournaments in the Middle East the past few years. Here in the Philippines, we need a lot of international tournaments, one or two tournaments every month, if we want to regain our status as the top chess-playing nation in Asia. 

I don't know about the chess politics or what is happening in chess in Syria. But based from what I see , Syria has a lot of good players in chess.com. Maybe in a couple of years, more young talents and future grandmasters will be discovered in Syria.

If Middle east countries start to defeat the Philippines in future olympiads or team competitions, then the Philippines needs to have an overhaul of its system and leaders.

The Philippines should not be content to "only" have Wesley So. We should produce more disciplined and dedicated super grandmasters. Based from what I observed, a lot of our titled players are lazy and play only in local tournaments.They lack discipline and dedication to study for long periods of time. Sponsorships for international competitions are not a problem. It is just that, the "leaders" of philippine chess do not flex its muscles more.

Furthermore, we have a billions of pesos going to corruption and to other sports which the Phippines does not stand a chance. Look at Basketball, we keep spending millions of pesos yet we cant even win the Asian Games or qualify to the world championship. We keep on giving basketball players multi million contracts and incentives, but we dont even have a enough allowances for our baseball and football players and other sports as well.

what would you say about syria? we finished like 85th i think!!!

They had all the time to prepare that time but we just sent a "B" team in the Olympiad. I hope the country will be in the top 20 in 2010 with wesley improving quickly and torre playing again in Board 2 or even the top board.

kahiya naman...baka hindi lang sila well prepared. I hope they will get better next time.

You are right Patupat! There should be a strong long term program in chess. The selection process must be improved. Politics really makes chess in our country worse. I recall an issue moe than a decade ago when Rogelio Barcenilla did not get his Grandmaster title because his patron, i think its art borjal, if i am not mistaken, was not in Campomanes' good graces. I am really embarrassed that even Myanmar and Bangladesh are catching up to us.

And to underscore the sorry state of Philippine chess, many of our neighbors in Asia finished way way ahead. Gone are the days of Philippine dominance in Asia. China # 7, Vietnam # 9, India # 16 (Anand did not play). If this doesn't make an electric shock to bother Philippine chess authorities to do something now, I don't know what should...

Yes, working as a team is even more emphasized in the new scoring system. The more that Philippine chess authorities should sit down, assess, and evaluate the system of selection of members of the team, not to mention the need to develop a more comprehensive program of developing and improving chess in the country. The selection and formation of the team should be done way ahead of the Olympiad and in a systematic manner; one tournament to determine team members is quite simplistic, in any international sporting event for that matter. It's really sad, politics is too engrossed even in sports, it's just a microcosm of a larger context.

yes!!! the Philippines is 46th after tiebreaks!! the worst finish in philippine chess history.

Philippines is 46th !?